The young man was “really impressed” not only with the game itself but “the way in which these teams that he’s encountering play it”, he said.
Miller spent about 10 years in Southampton before taking the step that would shape Brazilian football forever, according to Duncan Holley, historian at Southampton FC.
Aged 19, Miller returned to the country he was born in, armed with “some footballs, a rule book, some Saints shirts and sort of officially introduced football to Brazil”, said Holley.
“The fact that he had the rule book was pretty handy, I should think, because not many people in Brazil would have known the rules of association football as they were then.
“He came from a well-to-do family, so that obviously helped, but he lived in Sao Paulo and he didn’t waste much time in setting up teams, getting up, going around the streets, getting boys together, men together, to form teams and then leagues.”
In 1904, 10 years after Miller’s return, Southampton toured Argentina – the first English side to do so, said Holley.
“He went all the way down to meet the boat as it docked in Rio on their way to Argentina,” he said.
“He obviously saw their arrival as a way of promoting in Brazil the game of football and, in fact, he tried to get them to come and play a game in Brazil but they were already committed to Argentina so he had to wait another 44 years before Southampton toured Brazil in 1948.”